Bangladesh, Aug. 29 -- The Soviet planners who founded Enerhodar in 1970 bestowed the city with a fitting name: "the gift of energy."

For decades, the southern Ukrainian city was an affluent company town for power plant workers and their young families, with tree-lined avenues and tall apartment blocks.

But as the Russian occupation enters its fourth year, the hub that provided electricity across Ukraine is a ghost town ruled by violence and fear. Russian troops conduct surprise home searches and seemingly arbitrary detentions, while some residents disappear into indefinite incarceration in distant penal colonies.

The majority of its original inhabitants have fled and their homes are being repossessed. Russians are settling in, Reuters...